levo

The Crusades, c1095–1204

  • 16 subtopics
  • 47 things to know
  • Paper 1
  • Paper 1 breadth option, chosen from eight

What The Crusades, c1095–1204 covers

A Paper 1 breadth study of the crusading movement from Urban II's appeal in 1095 to the sack of Constantinople in 1204, covering why people took the cross, who led the expeditions, how the crusader states were held, and how the Muslim response hardened under Zengi, Nur ad-Din and Saladin. The historical interpretations section asks why the Fourth Crusade ended where it did.

Where it is assessed

Paper 1

Breadth study with interpretations, one option of eight.

Check the Pearson Edexcel specification ↗

The 16 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Who and when

How did the absence of a royal leader affect the crusade?

Who and when

How did the debt to Venice shape the crusade's decisions?

Who and when

What spiritual reward did Urban II offer crusaders who died or fought for the cause?

Key term

Name a key economic or social motive, beyond piety, that drew western knights to crusade.

Who and when

Who was the papal legate appointed to lead the First Crusade spiritually?

Key term

Who became the first crowned King of Jerusalem in 1100?

Key term

Who became the first Latin Emperor of Constantinople in 1204?

Evaluation

Which 1097 siege was the first major joint success of the First Crusade, handing the city back to Byzantium?

Key term

Which rival Muslim power held Jerusalem when the crusaders captured it in 1099?

Key term

At which 1191 battle did Richard I defeat Saladin during the Third Crusade?

Who and when

Who was the King of Jerusalem captured by Saladin at Hattin?

Key term

Which influential Cistercian abbot preached the Second Crusade?

Who and when

At which council in November 1095 did Pope Urban II launch the First Crusade?

Key term

Which Byzantine emperor's appeal for military aid helped prompt Urban II to call the First Crusade?

Who and when

Why did protecting pilgrims matter so much to the crusading ideal?

Key term

What popular, disorganised expedition of 1096 preceded the main armies and was destroyed in Asia Minor?

Key term

Which two European kings led the main royal armies of the Second Crusade?

Key term

Who called the Second Crusade, and in what year?

Key term

Which three European rulers set out on the Third Crusade?

Key term

What 1192 agreement ended the Third Crusade, leaving Christians a coastal strip and pilgrim access to Jerusalem?

Key term

Name the four crusader states established after the First Crusade.

Key term

Which military order, founded around 1119, was created to protect pilgrims to Jerusalem?

Key term

Why was the monarchy of Jerusalem structurally weak?

Key term

What were the two factions dividing the kingdom in the 1180s?

Key term

Which atabeg of Mosul revived the idea of jihad and captured Edessa in 1144?

Key term

The loss of which crusader county in 1144 triggered the calling of the Second Crusade?

Key term

Which pope launched the Fourth Crusade in 1198–1202?

Key term

Which European rulers failed to take part in the Fourth Crusade?

Key term

Which secular leader commanded the crusade and had ties to the Byzantine claimant?

Who and when

What did Venice agree to provide for the Fourth Crusade?

Key term

What new state was created after the sack of Constantinople?

Key term

Which Byzantine claimant offered money and aid to divert the crusade to Constantinople?

Evaluation

Which eleventh-century movement strengthened papal authority and reshaped ideas of penance?

Who and when

What did the papacy stand to gain politically from leading a crusade?

Key term

What material rewards drew knights to the East?

Key term

Which charismatic preacher is most associated with leading the People's Crusade?

Key term

What tensions arose between Louis VII and Conrad III?

Who and when

Why did Richard I take Cyprus in 1191?

Key term

Which military order originated as a hospital caring for sick pilgrims in Jerusalem?

Key term

Why were the coastal cities Baldwin I's priority?

Who and when

How did the divisions within the ruling elite contribute to the defeat at Hattin?

Key term

Which 1071 battle had opened Asia Minor to the Seljuk Turks and weakened Byzantium?

Who and when

Why did a rift develop between Nur ad-Din and Saladin?

Who and when

At which 1187 battle did Saladin destroy the main army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem?

Key term

Why was the shortfall in numbers so damaging?

Who and when

What did Venice gain from the Fourth Crusade?

Who and when

What did Alexius promise the crusaders?

Take The Crusades, c1095–1204 further

The same content, four other ways.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Which influential Cistercian abbot preached the Second Crusade?

    Model answer

    Bernard of Clairvaux.

  2. 2

    What spiritual reward did Urban II offer crusaders who died or fought for the cause?

    Model answer

    An indulgence remitting the penance owed for confessed sins.

  3. 3

    What is meant by the idea of a 'just war'?

    Model answer

    A war held to be morally justified because it is declared by legitimate authority, fought for a just cause and waged with right intention. Drawn from Augustine and developed by canon lawyers, it allowed the Church to present fighting as righteous rather than sinful.

  4. 4

    Which eleventh-century movement strengthened papal authority and reshaped ideas of penance?

    Model answer

    The papal reform movement, often called the Gregorian reform after Gregory VII, which asserted papal supremacy over the Church and over lay rulers.

  5. 5

    What was the Truce of God?

    Model answer

    The Church's ban on fighting on certain days of the week and in holy seasons, spread in the eleventh century and renewed by Urban II at Clermont to restrain knightly violence.

  6. 6

    Why was the recovery of Jerusalem such a powerful motive?

    Model answer

    Jerusalem held the Holy Sepulchre and was widely pictured as the centre of the world, so its recovery could be presented as freeing Christ's own patrimony from Muslim rule.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

See a huge jump in your memorisation

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

The Crusades, c1095–1204
England, 1509–1603: Authority, Nation and Religion
Britain, 1625–1701: Conflict, Revolution and Settlement
Britain, c1785–c1870: Democracy, Protest and Reform

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

Luis de .
RequesensAlbaGranvelle

Blank Blitz consolidates the facts

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AThe government admitted 96 dead and 333 wounded.
BOther estimates run to several hundred dead.
COpponents claimed thousands.

Build It trains answer structure

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Robert Aske led the Pilgrimage of Grace.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

The Crusades, c1095–1204 revision questions

What does The Crusades, c1095–1204 cover in Edexcel A-Level History?
16 subtopics: religious motives for the crusades, political motives for the crusades, the knights and the crusades, the first crusade, louis vii, conrad iii and the second crusade, the troubled leadership of the third crusade, geography and economy of outremer, defence of the crusader states, the government of the crusader states, muslim political and religious divisions, the growth of muslim power, 1144–69, the power of saladin, 1169–92, innocent iii's plans for the fourth crusade, the size and leadership of the crusading forces, venice and the doge enrico dandolo and prince alexius and the sack of constantinople. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is The Crusades, c1095–1204 organised?
By the Edexcel 9HI0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

Every question in The Crusades, c1095–1204, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.